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Christ Church Halton (United Reformed/Methodist)
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Service Times
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JUNE 2009
Sunday 7th June
10.30am Family Service led by Mrs Hazel Bantoft
6pm Circuit Service at Cross Gates Methodist
Sunday 14th June
10.30am Holy Communion led by Revd Joyce Nicholson
Sunday 21st June - Refugee Sunday
10.30am Morning Worship led by Mrs Sheila Telfer
Sunday 28th June
10.30am Morning Worship led by Revd Joyce Nicholson including the baptisms of Grace Louise Naylor and Kyle Joshua Smith
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Welcome
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Christ Church, Halton extends a warm welcome to everyone interested in visiting our church for worship, fellowship, support and friendship. If you are not familiar with our church we hope you will take time to visit us. You will be made most welcome. Being a Local Ecumenical Partnership church, in both Methodist and United Reformed traditions, we welcome people of any or no previous church affiliation to join with us in learning more about the Christian faith.
We have Junior Church who continue their own program of learning, but are happy for those too young to join Junior Church to stay with their carer throughout the service.
Message from Revd Joyce Nicholson
My Dear Friends,
Watching a B.B.C. programme on conditions in some parts of Western China, where the serious problems associated with industrial pollution lead to communities living with very poor air quality, made me realize afresh how much we take for granted. We don’t think about the fact that we have access to clean water, gas and electricity at all times of the day and night (or 24/7, as they say nowadays!) until something goes wrong with the supplies … and many of us breathe relatively clean air, although recent tests suggest that traffic congestion in some of our cities is now depriving our children of the sort of air quality most of us would like them to have.
Modern communication means that we cannot plead ignorance about the effect that the increasing demands which our consumer-led society is having on the lives of other communities as well as our own. I am glad that we are being reminded regularly about the issues of fair trade and the exploitation of workers in many places in our world - and I am happy that more and more people are listening and making more informed as well as more responsible decisions about shopping and banking and other lifestyle choices. I am glad that In the Christian Church we are taking these things much more seriously now; I believe we are called to care for creation and to seek justice for all God’s children and to try to treat others with compassion and a concern for their wellbeing and happiness.
This will be the last letter I write as the ‘half-time temporary’ minister sharing pastoral oversight with Robert at Christ Church. It has been a wonderful year in which Bob and I have been richly blessed by so much love and care. There is no need to say ‘Goodbye’, because we will still be around - but I do want to say ‘Thank You’ to you all for a great deal of fun and fellowship and for the privilege of sharing your lives in this special way this year. May God continue to bless you - and many others through you!
Joyce
(from the July/August 2009 issue of Contact the monthly magazine of Colton Methodist & Christ Church Halton)
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- We believe that God is leading us to serve Christ through the guidance of the Holy Spirit
-To meet regularly for worship and prayer
-To provide a community of peace, friendship and support for all ages
-To develop the spiritual and social growth of all associated with the partnership
-To maintain and develop relationships with our parent denominations and with other local churches
-To be a spiritual and social resource within the local community, working alongside other people of faith or of no faith
-To share in the pursuit of peace, justice and the integrity of creation.
It was for these reasons that the two participating churches, the Halton Methodist Church and the Halton United Reformed Church, came together out of a deep conviction that, if the church is to be a vital part of the community in Halton, then new initiatives in mission are necessary.
(from the Constitution of Christ Church circa 1989)
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Brief History of Christ Church
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Christ Church is a Local Ecumenical Partnership bringing together Halton Methodist Church and Halton United Reformed Church. These two churches started worshipping together at Easter 1988.
The congregations of Halton Methodist Church and Halton United Reformed Church united to become a Local Ecumenical Project known as Christ Church Halton. The first meeting of the Christ Church Council was held on July 20th 1989 and a celebratory service was held on October 1st 1989. On November 6th 1989 Halton URC agreed to ask their Trustees to offer the buildings and site for tender. Plans were made for a new £600,000 Christ Church Halton by JH Langtry-Langton and the builders were WV Patrick Ltd. The old chapel was closed on October 14th 1990 and the start of building was on May 5th 1992: the URC was demolished by September 1992. The takeover at the new church was on April 9th 1993 and the church opened on Easter Sunday 1993.
(extract reproduced with the permission of John Gilleghan MBE)
The former Methodist Church, which had the larger membership, was demolished in April 1991 to make way for the new Christ Church building. The former United Reformed Church was vacated in February 1992, the building and land being sold in order to invest the proceeds in the new building. Services and all associated activities, from March 1992 until the the new building was completed, were held in the local schools.
The two churches came together with a deep conviction that, if the church was to be a vital part of the community in Halton, new initiatives in mission were necessary. We believe that Christ was, and is still, calling us into this joint venture, that we may together worship, witness and serve in the midst of the neighbourhood in which we are situated. See our Mission Statement to the left of this section.
The Methodist tradition in Halton dates from 1810 and the Congregational (later part of the URC) from 1925. The extract above and a full account of all denominations in Halton and surrounding areas may be found under "Churches and Chapels" on pages 47-57 of local historian John Gilleghan's Halton: the story of an East Leeds Village (Leeds: Kingsway Press, 2004).
Past & Present Ministers of Christ Church
1986 Revd Marlene Wilkinson
1993 Revd Howard Smith
1995 Revd Keith Hunt
1996 Revd Ruth Crofton
2001 Revd Robert J Kitching
2006 Revd Georgina Brotherton
2008 Revd Joyce Nicholson
See John Gilleghan's Halton for a list of ministers of the two churches prior to this period.
October 2008
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